What is "a processing disorder"?

[Greta]

My husband and I are supposed to visit with two people in the Special Ed department at the local PS in mid-January to discuss the results of my dd's evaluation. One of these two nice ladies called me on Friday to let me know. Unfortunately she did not have much time to talk, and they are now out of the office for Christmas break. What she said is that dd is a very bright girl who doesn't have a learning disability per se, but who has a processing disorder. She said that her tests showed across the board that the understanding is there, but that she is very slow at expressing it. She said dd would be at a huge disadvantage in any classroom situation where work or tests are timed, that standardized tests will not accurately reflect her intelligence since they are timed, and that I should not do timed work with her because it would put too much pressure on her.

 

That's really all I know at this point, though she said she would go over with us in more detail: what tests she administered and how dd performed, what the "diagnosis" means, and specific things we can do in our homeschooling to help her. But I'm finding it hard to be patient! I want to do some research about this on my own before then, to be as informed as possible so that I know what questions to ask, but I don't even know where to begin.

 

Does anyone know of some good books and/or websites that could better help me understand what a processing disorder is?

 

Thank you in advance!

[PrincessAriel]

. Good luck to you!

http://www.ncld.org/...ask=view&id=470

[newbie]

The website below is a great place to start. My niece has Central Auditory Processing Disorder. The simplest thing would be information gets input, but gets jumbled in the brain, therefore the output comes out much different.

 

With her, if you are not standing in front of her giving verbal cues, and have her repeat. It can all be gobbledegook.

 

My sis still does not understand her disability. She will give commands across the house, and of course they do not get done. A word like cat, could be hat, bat , that or any at word. She might miss half. Also, tone gets lost in translation much of the time.

 

Understanding is key, you researching is the best thing you could do for you and your child.

 

Lots of hugs and support on your journey.

[Greta]

Thank you both so very much! Newbie, you said "the website below . . . " but I didn't find a link in your post. Did you just mean the one that MomofC&A had already posted?

[newbie]

Yes, sorry Greta.

[Greta]

That's fine, just wanted to make sure. Thanks again!

[kRenee]

Each of the 5 senses take in input and then process (interpret and use) that information. You'll want to make sure that the input is good, i.e. can the eyes see, can the ears hear, etc but that ususally isn't the problem. The problem is what the brain does with the information it receives from the eyes, ears and skin.

 

My son has processing disorders. Auditory, visual and sensory including vestibular. His hearing is excellent but his ears hear at different speeds so what he actually perceives in his brain is often jumbled. His eyesight is excellent, but reading is difficult because what the eye sees is distorted when it 'hits' the brain. His sensory processing disorders include hearing sounds 'too loudly' and not being able to block out the unneccessary or unimportant information. And he speaks and works very slowly because taking all that information, trying to make sense of it and then reformulating thoughts takes a lot of time.

 

Processing disorders then lead to cognitive deficits because the the brain has been receiving inaccurate information for so long - at least in my son's case. We did vision therapy for the eyes, sound therapy for the auditory, occupational therapy for the sensory and now we are doing a program that ends with cognitive therapy.

 

If you google the individual terms - visual processing, auditory processing, sensory processing you should be able to find more information.